Ricky Martin denies he was molested by Jose Menendez
David Migicovsky
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Ricky Martin denies he was molested by Jose Menendez
Singer Ricky Martin denies that record promoter Jose Menendez ever made an
improper advance toward him while Martin was a member of the youth band
Menudo. Those allegations were made in this week's edition of the tabloid
Globe. The follow-up story, including Martin's denial, appeared in Friday's
Page Six section of the New York Post.
Menendez was the record exec who orchestrated Menudo's meteoric U.S. rise
and who was later murdered by his sons, Lyle and Erik. In the Globe story, a
former Menudo promoter alleges that during Erik and Lyle's first trial, cops
investigated whether Martin had been molested by Jose during a trip to
Disneyland. Former promoter Darrin McGillis told the Globe, "While en route,
the investigator told me, Menendez allegedly pulled over to the side of the
highway and tried to put his hands down Ricky's pants."
"On the record, Ricky denied anything untoward had happened between them,"
Menendez biographer Robert Rand told Page Six. Investigators confirm that
molestation allegations did surface about Jose and an unnamed Menudo member
during Erik and Lyle's first trial. The two brothers, now serving life
sentences for killing their parents in 1991, contended their dad molested
them.
It was Jose Menendez who put together the 1983 $30-million RCA record deal
that put Menudo on the map in the United States--and the then-teenage Martin
later became a heartthrob idol to millions of young girls.
Martin's rep, Kim Jakeworth, insisted to Page Six: "Ricky never, ever even
met the Menendezes' father or the two kids. Check your clips. Ricky wasn't
even in Menudo when Jose Menendez was involved with the band." But according
to Rand, Ricky did know Jose. Martin joined the mite-size marvels in 1984,
the year after Menendez inked the band's record deal, and Rand says Martin
told him that he and the exec did indeed cross paths.
"Ricky told me he remembered meeting Jose Menendez," says Rand, who
interviewed Martin in Mexico City in 1993 and asked him about the rumors.
Rand, though contending that McGillis's molestation account is hogwash, says
he uncovered "a lot of other information about Jose and his apparent
obsession with the boys in the band." It'll turn up in his Menendez tome,
Strange Sins, due out next spring. Rand wants to make one thing clear:
"Regardless of whether there was any connection between Jose and members of
Menudo, it doesn't necessarily support the brothers' claims they were
molested by their father."